Named after ancient Greek architect Callicrates, the programme was presented by the socialist Papandreou cabinet and was adopted by the Hellenic Parliament in May 2010.

[3] In return, the thirteen administrative regions of Greece, which had already been created in 1987, but in the absence of a working budget remained unable to fulfill even their limited responsibilities,[4] now assumed the prefectures' competences in regard to tax collection, European structural funding and treasury.

Largely subverted by an uncoordinated but convergent anti-reform opposition, the reformed prefectures lost a number of important competences following court decisions.

Only after the 2007 reelection did the Karamanlis government decide that further reforms were necessary to bring the territorial structure in line with the European Union's Lisbon Strategy and the requirements of the Fourth Programming Period (2007–2013).

[11] The thirteen regions were planned to be combined to just six major "programmatic supra-regions" that were expected to more successfully compete for European structural funding.

Municipalities would be amalgamated from 1034 down to 400, and prefectural governments reduced from 50 down to 16, in order to overcome fragmentation, to facilitate fiscal control by the state, and to create economies of scale.

[12] Following the landslide victory of the socialist PASOK in the early 2009 legislative election, a new attempt at further administrative reforms was started.

While in terms of figures rather similar to the failed New Democracy plans, it was not confined to reducing the sheer number of administrative entities and their state accountability.

Headed by a general secretary appointed by the Minister of Interior, the decentralized administration is responsible for regional planning and environmental protection.

[22] Scholars of Southern European studies have described the Kallikratis reform as surprising, as it abolished a great number of prestigious and powerful political posts, which ahead of the looming crisis would have been regarded indispensable for keeping party clientelism alive.

[24] Howard Elcock suggested that in spite of all efforts, officialdom's reluctance makes securing transparency a continuing struggle, so the Greek citizen remained an administré rather than a participant in government[7][page needed].